Tour Down Under | Stage 1 – What A Scorcher!

It was a scorcher out there today and it's one of those few times where I don't envy professional cyclists. The temperature on the road was 42C at 11am with a hot northerly wind that sucked the life out of you.

The riders averaged only 32.7km/hr for 149kms into a headwind from Adelaide to the wine region of the Clare Valley. Some guys went through as many as 16 waterbottles throughout the race. Team SKY made up 80 bottles for the team and they ran out. There were a few fines handed out for the “non-regulation supply of refreshments #24″. 50CHF to Matty Lloyd, Greg Henderson and Francesco Masciarelli and 200CHF to their teams. However, this had to do more with the commissaires clamping down on sticky bottles rather than allowing them to get refreshments from their cars within the regulations (sorry InnerRing – you’ve got me hooked on reading the rulebook):

Tomorrow is supposed to be a bit cooler and it’s a fantastic stage to watch out in Stirling. If you brought your bike to Adelaide, there are some wonderful rides out to Stirling and if you stick around for a few minutes after the stage you’ll get to ride home with the pros. Always a unique experience to the Tour Down Under.

Gallery

Takashi Miyazawa (JPN), must have went down hard and took half the road with him. I was speaking with the team manager of Vaconsoleil and they broke 3 Bianchi frames in today’s stage (Romain Feillu’s, Wouter Mol’s and Kenny Van Hummel’s). It’s reported that an elderly spectator brought down Van Hummel which resulted in 20-30 riders going down at 800m remaining. All 133 riders finished the stage but a three were taken to hospital. FDJ-BigMat rider Frederic Guesdon was admitted to Royal Adelaide Hospital with a fractured pelvis. Greipel’s team mate Jurgen Roelandts was also taken to Royal Adelaide Hospital for x-rays on his neck with the results expected overnight.

Rohan Dennis – nearly made it to the finish alone after a long hard breakaway. Jens Voigt was the one who convinced Rohan to initiate break away early in the stage where his group got 11 mins on the bunch. | Ever wonder what reporters wear underneath the shot?

The SBS crew and others watching the final sprint. Wasn’t it nice having 5:30 pm highlights on SBS so we all knew what happened in the race before the next day? In the Tour Village there are supposed to be 6:30-7:30 highlights of the stage, but they didn’t happen today because of technical difficulties.